A corrupt banking official has been accepting bribes and allowing ships to forego inspections, and it's your job to infiltrate and find evidence positively linking him to the bribes. This is the Panama mission, the first real cooperative mission inTom Clancy's Splinter Cell®: Chaos Theory™.
True to Splinter Cell form, just because it's first doesn't mean it's easy. This mission is also the first time you play cooperatively with a friend, and just understanding that dynamic is a trial in and of itself. However, this walkthrough takes you through nearly the first half of this mission (until you reach your first major objective), and should alleviate some of the confusion and help you and your partner find your stride in the game. Now, on to the walkthrough.
Your drop zone sets you and your trusty partner just outside the building on a rain-soaked night. Your first order of business is finding a way inside. This first objective demonstrates the kind of cooperative, keen eye you need. However, before you can get to the entrance, you need to deal with the guards.
The first guard is patrolling just in front of you. Sneak into the shadows under the right wall and let him walk past. Then, have one spy train his gun on him (for a headshot) in case things go awry, and have the other spy sneak up behind him. Once your spy grabs the guard, pull him back into the shadows and deposit him there.
The other guards are on the far side of the area. If you take a minute to establish their patrolling patterns, you should be able to gain entrance completely unseen. Just stick to the shadows and stay out of their pathways. You gain entrance by moving along the right wall (not literally, remember; stick to the shadows) and following it left as it meets the far wall.
Near the end of that wall is a ledge that you can toss your buddy onto. Here's your first cooperative move. Have one spy kneel down in front of the outcropping and ready your co-op move. Let the other spy approach him and press the Black button. This will toss the spy up toward the ledge. Once he's clinging to the edge, have him press the Black button to allow the other spy to climb up his back and crawl into the next room.
The next room is lit, but don't worry, there is no guard here. However, there is one in the adjoining hallway. One spy should use the secondary fire to put out the light, while the other uses the optical camera under the door. Wait until the patrolling guard is in front of the door, and then bash the door in. This will incapacitate the patrolling guard. Pull him into the room and dump him inside.
Now, go into the hall, but be sure to be crouched. There's a camera at the end of the hall, but it isn't pointing down. If you remain crouched, it shouldn't detect you. All the same, it won't hurt to have one spy disable the light above. At the end of the hall is a door on the right. Don't head through there yet. Instead, go through the doorway on the left by hacking the keypad. Then proceed down the short hall to the next door, and stealthily open the door. There are no patrolling guards here, so you can make a straight shot to the door opposite you. Open the door stealthily, and you find two guards sitting in front of a TV watching a soccer match. No single spy can deal with both. You and your partner need to sneak up behind the couch, stand up, pull out your guns, and synchronize headshots to take down both of them.
Next, head back out of the room the way you came in, and turn to the right. Now you perform a move that will be useful throughout the rest of the game. Up near the ceiling on the right side is a camera. Place one spy at an angle and use the secondary fire on the pistol to disable it. This allows one spy to pass by undetected. Once the first spy is past the camera, he can perform the same maneuver and allow the first spy to pass by the camera unhindered. Be wary, though—there is a guard patrolling. So long as you do everything quietly and stay in the shadows, you should be aware of him before he sees you. Dispatch him however you see fit and deposit him in the room with the two guards you just killed.
Now go into the next available room, where you find two different computers. One should give you an access code that you need later. Once you've hacked the computer, head back out and to the right, where you find an as-of-yet-unexplored corridor. Enter the first door you come to (on your left) and hack the computer inside to gain another needed access code. Now head back out and down the hall to the next door on your left. Again, set the optical camera and wait until you see the guard patrol in front of the door, and then bash open the door to take him out. Deposit him in whatever dark corner you can find.
There are two doors in this room. One you can unlock by hacking a keypad, and one set of double doors leads out into a new room. Hack the keypad, but don't bother heading inside. It leads to an elevator that you can't use. Now head through the double doors into the new room, and then through the next door, which leads to a set of stairs. Take the stairs up until you see the guard silhouetted behind a window. Use one spy to eliminate the light ahead while the other sneaks off to the right. Then use that spy to do the same for his partner. Head through the door just to the right of the stairs, and wait for the guard who is patrolling the hall. Use one spy to eliminate the light and the other to take out the guard when he enters the room. Now you can dual-hack the door ahead of you without worry.
Once the retinal scanners are both hacked, you hear from Lambert, who tells you it's time to access the archives themselves. You find these on a computer terminal in the next room, and this marks the completion of your first major objective.
Congratulations, you're on your own. You should now have a good idea of how the game incorporates the cooperative gameplay, and a good understanding of what sorts of puzzles and obstacles you encounter. Good luck on the rest of your stealthy journey.
